I-69: Coming soon to a previously undisturbed habitat near you. : Houston Indymedia

"Infrastructure projects are a weak point in capitalism that we should all be attacking."

Sunday evening, EarthFirst's Roadblock Roadshow 2007 made its southernmost stop at the Artery to entertain, teach, and prepare Houstonians for the arrival of Interstate 69. Audience members laughed and learned as the EarthFirsters explained the danger of this new privately owned superhighway with lectures, songs, a puppet show, and even a play replete with woodland creature costumes and a someone dressed as a cardboard CAT machine.

Interstate 69 is one part of several planned privately owned superhighways that will serve as a corridor for NAFTA. They will be used to more easily transport goods from export based economies in Mexico and South America to the United States and Canada. Its construction will mean the devastation and pollution of hundreds of thousands of square miles of pristine habitats as well as the eviction of the millions of people currently living in its path (not to even mention the economic effects of giving NAFTA a helping hand).

Construction began in Northern Michigan and was completed through most of Indiana in the 1980’s. Affected farming communities and their allies have spent the better part of two decades lobbying, letter writing, holding public meetings. By garnering what EarthFirst says is the support of 94% of the community’s support, southern Indiana’s citizens managed to stall the construction for over 15 years. During the presentation, slideshows full of pictures of the begrieved, desperate workers of farming communities due to be displaced in 2007 made it clear that pleading to a multinational corporation’s sense of humanity is useless. About a month ago, the Indiana Department of Transportation announced that it was tired of feigning democracy and announced that construction will begin in 2008. Those unlucky enough to be in the way better have their bags packed by the summer of ’07. Since that announcement, EarthFirst’s Roadblock Roadshow 2007 has been traveling the route of the proposed highway (scheduled to continue through Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi, Arkansas, Louisiana, join with the Trans Texas Corridor in Texas, and finally link with the infrastructure projects of Plan Pueblo Panama) to warn people of the coming superhighway, and to show affected communities how to empower themselves through direct action, which they believe is the only option.

But, while direct action may be the only thing that will keep the multinational corporations from destroying your habitat and your livelihood, no one said you couldn’t have fun while doing it. The troupe brought slideshows of street festivals designed to block construction vehicles from towns, people playing music and dancing under giant sky nets designed to make evictions extremely difficult, and extended tree-sits showed audience members that there’s no reason not to keep rocking until the cops come knocking.

After the presentation, the audience hoedowned to some rockin’ banjo music and then broke into groups to discuss next steps. By the end of the presentation, Houstonians were armed with effective and fun ways to resist construction of I-69 and the rest of the series of new privatized superhighway road building projects that are the Trans Texas Corridor. Audience members also left with an important message: The fight against I-69 isn’t just about saving the environment from the deleterious (and often irreparable) environmental effects that a massive construction project like this will create. Its part of the much larger struggle of activist communities all over the planet to save themselves from the multinational corporation’s parasitic grip on the planet’s resources (human and otherwise).